The Most Mysterious Star In The Universe

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    As you peer into the darkness of the night, you’ll see thousands of stars sparkling like diamonds under the night sky. Though the stars themselves haven’t changed, our knowledge and perception of stars have greatly changed. In the past ancient civilizations like the Greek and Polynesians used stars for navigation while stars served a major religious purpose in ancient Egyptian culture. In the modern world today however, we have moved on and studied stars to learn more about space and the universe for the scientific progression of our civilization. Through centuries of discovery we have learned a lot about stars such as their luminosity, size, color and lifespan although our understanding of stars is still maintaining to be trivial. Even currently many researchers and analysts are studying various stars in the universe, however one mysterious star has caught the attention of countless astronomers and scientists all over the world.


    Our story of KIC 8462852 or more commonly known as Tabby’s star began in 2009 with the launch of the Kepler mission. The primary purpose of Kepler was to identify exoplanets outside of our solar system. By continually recording data at a singular point in intervals, the Kepler telescope was able to  identify transits within star-planet orbits. A transit refers to a period of time where the brightness of a star decreases because of the planetary object blocking the light's trajectory. Kepler had monitored close to 150,000 stars but after the data was resealed from NASA, many people began to question the accuracy of the data calculations. And so, Fueled by the skepticism by many scientists and astronomers, the planet hunters project was founded.

    Tabby’s star was first observed by the planet hunters program in 2011, when the data showed that the star's brightness had been reduced by almost 15% and by 2013 the star's brightness had dimmed by almost 22%. To put into scale, a planet the size of Jupiter would only dim the star by 1%, which shows that whatever was orbiting the star was massive. Not only that but there were also other abnormalities that were recorded in the data. One example was the overall shape of the transition as recorded by the graph. Normal planetary transitions would retain a parabolic shape, which shows that the structure of the object was elliptical like a planet. However Tabby’s graphic structure had an abnormal slope which showed that whatever was orbiting the star was not a planet.

    The abnormality of the data had raised controversy in the public. Many astronomers and researchers had come up with a variety of theories but perhaps the most obscure and bizarre is the Alien Megastructure Theory. This theory was mainly backed up by a concept called the Dyson Sphere. In a paper written by Freeman Dyson, he proposed that any alien civilization would potentially follow a similar power consumption pattern to us humans. Now as power consumption needs increase at one point we won’t be able to produce enough power on earth, so the next logical step is to harness them from stars. Freedman states that one way of harnessing a star's power is through a Dyson Sphere, where a ring or orbit of satellite-like technological devices absorb the light from a star and wirelessly transfer it back to a planet. Some believe that the mysterious object surrounding Tabby’s star may be a version of the Dyson Sphere. 
    

    So can we all agree on this theory or not? Many scientists including Tabetha Boyajian, a main part of the Planet Hunters Program believe otherwise. As Tabetha Boyajian puts it, “Alien hypothesis should always be a last resort.” Many scientists and researchers have countless other theories, ranging from stardust, magnetic activity, a triple star system and asteroid clusters. The truth behind Tabby’s star may be a mystery for many years, but researching this phenomenon will answer countless questions posed by astronomers for countless years including the possibility of aliens.


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